Vladimir Lenin\'s \"Imperialism, the Highest

¶ … Vladimir Lenin's "Imperialism, the Highest State of Capitalism." Written in 1916, the book was an explanation of why capitalism and imperialism were wrong vs. The socialist views of Marx and the Soviet revolutionaries. Lenin proposes that capitalism and imperialism oppress the weak and the worker while building monopolies and power for the rich and allows for payoffs to be made to officials that keep the workers in line. He proposed that the smaller and undeveloped countries were being exploited and would revolt, like Russians, and lead to the overturning of the oppressors.

Lenin's thesis was the higher class through imperialism was able to control and manipulate the lower classes. He arrived at his conclusions based on the Tsar's rule in Russia and the Capitalist rule in the world's superior nations. The only problem is this led to government controlled businesses in Russia and further exploitation by the means of the dictatorship it created. Lenin, personally, may have had good intentions in mind but the power hunger after him created a different world.

Lenin had proposed business be owned by the people and the sharing of the wealth through conglomerations. Inexperience of the factory workers to manage the business and problems from this, resulted in government takeovers of almost all businesses.

Lenin dramatized the role of the world's superior nations in the exploitation of other smaller countries by colonization. This paper will examine and gave an analysis for the material and any pertinent information will discussed in detail. In the literature review the paper will be discussed and in the conclusion we will attempt to show the arguments for and against the content of the book.

Literature Review

Lenin wrote the book "Imperialism, the Highest State of Capitalism" in 1916 about a year before the Russian Revolution overthrew the Russian Tsar and the government. Lenin proposed and used factual information to demonstrate the class differences and what it meant to the lower classes.

In the first section of the book, "Concentration of Production and Monopolies," Lenin declares that the majority of the production in a country, he uses Germany and United States as examples, is done by approximately 1% of the enterprises in these countries and results in monopolies that smaller companies cannot compete against. He states that 97% of the power supplies are utilized by these companies and leaves only 3% for the other companies.

Lenin proposes the monopolies control the pricing and receive large profits for people that are invested in the big companies. According to the book, freedom and free competition are eliminated by the large monopolies. It is suggested that smaller companies have to be submissive to the larger if they are to continue. It was written that the monopolies gained control of the smaller companies through devious means. The ways described include the organization of trade unions that allow workers to only worker for approved companies, stopping shipment of materials needed, shutting down deliveries, trade outlets closed down, buyer agreements that shut out other companies, cutting of prices to a range below the profitability of smaller companies, denying credit for small businesses, and boycotts.

Lenin states that the monopolies use their power to gain the upper hand and take over the economy. It was proposed that the profits were at the expense of the lower class.

In section II, "Banks and their New Role," Lenin states the roles the large banks are playing in the Imperialism of the countries. Statistics in the book report that the biggest banks in a country in this case Germany constitutes 48% or more of the money of a country. It was proposed that the banks would team up with the large monopolies and in turn become part of the Imperialistic system. Lenin states the bigger bank will take over or become affiliated with most over the smaller banks to control the money and the capital. The book states that due to the need for capital to be profitable smaller savings banks they will have to give into the banking giants and the people in the lower class will be robbed of potential earnings by the monopolies and the banks.

The monopolizing of the banks makes dependence on them necessary in business and personal finances and gives the bank the upper hand due to the lack of competition. Members of the industrial monopolies will become board members and the end factor is the merger of industrial and banking monopolies. The industrial giants will control the distribution to the smaller companies and this will give even more control over the small business or cause it financial difficulties.

In section III, "Finance Capital and the Financial Oligarchy," Lenin goes on to stress the merger of banking and industry. He again reports that all of this is leading to monopolizing the system. He reports that the bigger companies own not only subsidiaries but subsidiaries of these companies. They use these offspring to allow the bigger companies to take risks at the expense of the small stakeholders and through improper balance sheets they can dump their stake-holdings before the company goes under. He draws on conclusions that smaller country banks are actually owned or controlled by the banks on the larger countries which hold major shares of the bank. Lenin proposed that monopolies used their banking in buy up all the raw material sources and both the bank and the industry shared the profits from the acquisition.

Daughter companies are often fronts to get small investor money at a higher rate and then dump the company leaving the public to lose their shares and money. Banks use bonds or securities as a means to acquire small business at below market cost and use them as a source of earnings. According to Lenin, the banks profit off the downfall of the smaller businesses and the people investing in these businesses.

Lenin proclaims that the more the monopolies control, the rest of the nation will lose their freedom especially the people of the nation. He proclaims that not even liberties granted through the government will be able to stop the monopolies.

Section IV, "Export of Capital," Lenin begins by stating that the export of goods since in the days of free competition has given away to the export of capitol under the monopolies rule. He declares that people are the new commodity in the form of labor. It is written that if the capitalist put as much emphasis on agriculture, which lags far behind industry; it would raise the living costs of the mass of the people and relieve the poverty stricken and starving people. Lenin states that will not happen because with the current situation the capitalist has found a source of cheap labor and land and raw materials are kept at low prices. They ship work abroad because the land they live in is too saturated and the fields are not as profitable.

The book contends that by doing this the capitalists can bring their views and exhort power over the smaller developed countries. The monopolies and banks then control the majority of that country as well.

In section V, "Division of the World among Capitalist Associations," Lenin contends that once the monopolies had consumed the majority of their countries, they started forming international alliances with other monopolies to form super-monopolies. He uses the electric companies of Germany and the United States to implement his reasoning for this due to the fact that1- 2 companies in both countries held the control over the electric industry through their companies or majority holdings in the smaller companies. The two monopolies secretly divided up the developed companies between them and set up daughter companies in the undeveloped countries. He shows the power struggles over oil and how the once 2 super giants in the industry put down upcoming competition through daughter companies and the banking monopolies. Other industries were analyzed to show how the monopolies could use leverage, economic downfalls, and other tricks to takeover or drive competition out of business. The super-monopolies divided up the world to benefit each other without direct competition.

Section VI, "Division of the World by the Great Powers" shows how the countries of England, Germany, and France had taken over the unoccupied territories of the world. It showed that 90% of Africa, 99% of Polynesia, 57% of Asia, 100% of Australia, and 27% of the United States belonged to these three nations. England had acquired 3,700,000 square miles of territory containing 57,000,000 people, France had 3,600,000 square miles and 36,500,000 people, Germany obtained 1,000,000 square miles and 14,700,000 people, Belgium got 900,000 miles and 30,000,000 people and Portugal had 800,000 and 9,000,000 people from the acquisition of territories.

British heroes of the time had stated that imperialism was the only way to prevent civil wars with the poverty stricken people and have new avenues for exporting the good manufactured within the nation. Also being colonized was Persia, Turkey, and China. Lenin showed how the colonies grew by over 50% after 1876. He stated that France as a financial capital was richer than Germany and Japan combined.

The rest of the section sees a return to the monopolies and their control over raw materials. Stating how the international monopolies controlled all the material necessary to manufacture and produce goods. He asserts that the monopolies created shortages in areas to keep the public from turning against colonization of other areas when in fact they could have cooperated with agriculture to more than supply the means.

Lenin draws the conclusion that monopolies not only desire the areas of known resources but attempt to acquire resources not discovered yet. Undeveloped land deemed as worthless might someday yield desirability with technological advancements. He states that the financial systems sought to acquire the greatest amounts of land to keep away the chances of competition from the smaller nations or businesses. It is noted the world was divided into two parts the countries owning colonies and the colonies.

He shows how Portugal was a sovereign nation but was also a British protectorate which allowed Great Britain to have access to all avenues within the country. He concludes the section by saying, even though several great countries powers control the majority of the land they are too greatly spread out to be able to maintain authority.

Section VII, "Imperialism as a Special Stage of Capitalism," Lenin starts to draw together what all the previous sections meant. He defines capitalism as free competitive enterprise and goods production. He defines imperialism as monopolies where there are not free competitive industries and everything is owned primarily by formation of syndications and trusts, which with the banking industry controls millions. Finance capital is stated as the monopolies of the banks combined with the monopolies of industry and is the division of the world by the acquisition of new territories. Lenin gives the five basic principles of imperialism, as written in the book, are:

1. The concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;

2. The merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this "finance capital," of a financial oligarchy;

3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance;

4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist combines which share the world among themselves, and

5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed. Imperialism is capitalism in that stage of development in which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital has established itself; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun; in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed. (Lenin, 1916)

He then reports to the major difference of capitalism and imperialism is the working class. He also states the land acquisitions are strategic military operation vantage points for one country vs. another encase of aggression. Lenin foretells of a day when the world will be part of a one trust or one monopoly. In the book, he states the lack of unity at that time between Germany and Great Britain but shows the unity of the United States and Great Britain. He talks about the situation of the world and the struggle for South America.

Lenin declares the emergence of new imperialist countries such as Japan. He concludes the section discussing the fight between the nations of Europe over the railway systems.

In section VIII, "Parasitism and Decay of Capitalism," Lenin declares that capitalism will slowdown the technological advances of the world by refusing to embrace the new technology or buying it and discarding it. He illustrates this point by telling how a German Company bought the patent of a machine that would revolutionize the bottle making industry only to put the plans out of commission. He declares that even though technology can lead to profits; the characteristics of monopolies are stagnation and decay. He draws on his conclusions that like a parasite, imperialism feeds off the lower classes of people. He states that countries like Great Britain and other powerful countries are becoming creditor to smaller countries and are becoming more dependent on that income that the manufacturing of products.

In the fight for the colonies and within revolting groups in the colonies, the parasitic countries use the natives not there main armies to conduct the fighting. Countries that once maintained agricultural and manufacturing as a means of survival started catering to the demands of the financier. The rich often take prime agricultural land and convert to usage for sports and pleasure. Immigration of people from low paying countries to the richer nations was noted in this section. The immigrants are used for the poorly paid jobs while the nationalist retain better paying jobs.

In section IX, "Critique of Imperialism," Lenin attempts to clarify his stance on imperialism by stating that the middle class goes along with the monopolies to keep from being denied certain privileges. The lower class or weaker people have started to fight back against the conditions in words but do not attempt further action. He states that a lot of the territories acquired were done so by lies or devious methods. He states that due to the enormous amounts of monetary value the imperialist have no problem in going to war to protect or gain more wealth. Trade with many of the weaker nations would not have been possible without military intervention.